Main menu

What's the most popular car at SEMA?: Scion FR-S, Wrangler, Ford F-series and Mustang win their categories

October 29, 2012

The Scion FR-S is a popular vehicle at this year's SEMA show in Las Vegas.

There are thousands of customized vehicles at the SEMA show every year, representing the best and most outrageous of the $30 billion aftermarket. Every year there's nothing more fun than picking the king. To determine which one was the most popular on the show floor, SEMA itself started counting the cars three years ago, giving awards based on sheer numbers. Officials wandered the nearly 2 million square feet of show floor the night before the show opened and started counting. While they won't release the exact figures, they did say which vehicle was most popular in each of four categories. And the winners are:

Again, no hard numbers, but the FR-S won its category by far, we're told. There were not nearly as many Subaru BRZs and no significant challenge was posed by any other car. Last year's hot sport compact was the Fiat 500.

The Jeep Wrangler was the most popular SUV by a long shot. "If there's a bolt hole on that thing anywhere, the aftermarket will bolt something to it," Jeep designer Mark Allen said.

There were something like 100 Ford F-series trucks in the big halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, though only 2012 and 2013 models counted toward the award. The love of the aftermarket for the mighty Raptor, of which there were more than a dozen, certainly helped.

The car category was, as it has been all three years, a close call between Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro. The first two years of the award the Camaro won. This year it was the Mustang. But by only a handful of cars, said one of the SEMA counters.

"The collective voice of our industry is powerful," SEMA president Chris Kersting said. "The booth space is a ballot, the vehicles the manufacturers choose to put in that booth space is a vote."

And that's an election we can all enjoy.

Mark Vaughn
- After slumming in Europe five years covering F1 etc. Mark Vaughn interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show has been with us ever since because no one else will take him. Anyone?
See more by this author»